If you are looking for reasons the Angels might be better than the experts think, there are the obvious ones like the return of Garrett Richards, a vastly improved defense and, of course, the best player in the majors.

And then there is the number 10.

For all that went wrong with the Angels in 2016 – from the conga line of starting pitchers to the black hole in left field to the four closers they used – when it was all over the Angels had allowed just 10 more runs than they scored.

The Angels scored 717 runs and allowed 727. Baseball analysts tell you that run differential is a better indicator of a team’s true level of play than even wins and losses. The 74-win Angels, at minus-10, had a better run differential than the 84-win New York Yankees, at minus-22.

Which can plausibly lead to the conclusion that the 2016 Angels weren’t actually as bad as you thought.

Which can plausibly lead to the conclusion that the 2017 Angels – who have seemingly plugged a few holes in their lineup and begin the season with a healthy Richards – could be better than you think.

Of course, in the clubhouse, run-differential doesn’t carry as much as weight as good, old-fashioned self-confidence, which is never in short supply just before opening day.

“You just look around the clubhouse and we improved in a lot of spots,” Kole Calhoun said. “That gets me excited.”

Added Matt Shoemaker: “We all feel like the sky is the limit. If we go out and perform the way we know we can, we seriously believe that we can go out and have a great, fun, winning season.”

Shoemaker and his colleagues in the starting rotation, as always, are the key to whether the Angels live up to their expectations, or down to the baseball’s world skepticism.

“Any team goes as the pitchers go,” Shoemaker said. “We know that and we embrace it. We love the challenge.”

The glass-half-full perspective of the Angels’ rotation begins with the fact that they have essentially added an ace in Richards. His 98 mph fastballs in spring training seemed to demonstrate that he’s healthy after undergoing stem-cell therapy instead of having Tommy John surgery to repair a damaged ulnar collateral ligament. Last season, the Angels got just six starts out of Richards before he got hurt.

Now, they are hoping for a full season from a pitcher who has a 3.11 ERA in the three seasons he’s been a full-time starter.

“When he went down last year we were really playing catch-up, looking for arms,” Calhoun said. “Definitely having Garrett take the bump more than five or six times will be important.”

Besides Richards, the Angels lost Andrew Heaney and Nick Tropeano to Tommy John surgery. C.J. Wilson didn’t throw a major league pitch in 2016. Tyler Skaggs, who was supposed to be ready in April, didn’t make it back until July. As a result, the Angels used 15 starters, most in the league, and that included the likes of Brett Oberholtzer, David Huff and Tim Lincecum, who was allowed to take the ball nine times despite posting an ERA of 9.16.

Now the Angels have Richards back. They have Shoemaker, who was their best starter for four months in 2016. They have Skaggs, who has shown flashes of brilliance in his brief big league career. They have veteran Ricky Nolasco, who posted a 1.47 ERA over his last six starts in 2016, thanks to increased use of his sinker.

“Our rotation has the probability of being much deeper and much more effective,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.

Of course, there is a glass-half-empty perspective too.

None of those starters is anything near a certainty, Richards because of his elbow and the others because they’ve all been consistently inconsistent.

The Angels’ bullpen also could go either way. Huston Street, Joe Smith and Cam Bedrosian all took turns as closer last year, each eventually getting hurt. They finished the season closing games with Andrew Bailey, trying to revive his career after three years lost to shoulder trouble.

Now they have a bullpen led by Bedrosian, Bailey and Street, who should be off the disabled list sometime this month #in April#. There is potential, for sure, but also plenty of question marks.

There are fewer unknowns with the position players, who figure to be a stronger group offensively than the Angels have had in at least the past two years. Defensively, they could be exceptional.

“The way you would project this to be is probably the best all-around defensive team we’ve had here,” said Scioscia, who has managed the Angels since 2000.

Shortstop Andrelton Simmons is perhaps the best defensive player, at any position, in the majors. Center fielder Mike Trout and Calhoun, in right, are both well above average at their positions. To that mix, General Manager Billy Eppler has added second baseman Danny Espinosa, first baseman Luis Valbuena, left fielders Cameron Maybin and Ben Revere and catcher Martin Maldonado.

All of them are above average to elite.

“That’s going to be important in making the plays you should make and limiting extra pitches for pitchers,” Scioscia said. “Billy Eppler made a focused effort to upgrade defensively and we have.”

Offensively, Espinosa and the combination of Maybin/Revere plug the two biggest holes the Angels had in their lineup last year, second and left. The Angels have had the worst production in baseball in left two years in a row. They also added some balance to a lineup that leaned hard to the right, with the left-handed Valbuena, Revere and the switch-hitting Espinosa. Valbuena, though, will be out until at least late April with a hamstring injury.

“I think (the lineup) can be really good,” Calhoun said. “We have a lot of guys who can run, guys who can handle the bat. That’s got to make anyone excited.”

And, of course, no discussion of the Angels’ potential is complete without examining the one spot at which they have a leg up on every team in the majors.

They have Trout.

The major league leader in Wins Above Replacement in each of his five full seasons, Trout gives the Angels instant credibility, no matter how the rest of the team looks.

“He’s the best in the game,” Calhoun said. “We can rally around him. Hopefully he brings the same caliber of play he’s brought the last five years. He’s definitely a special talent. He’s the kind of guy who can put a team on his back.”

Jeff Fletcher has covered the Angels since 2013. Before that, he spent 11 years covering the Giants and A's and working as a national baseball writer. Jeff is a Hall of Fame voter. In 2015, he was elected chairman of the Los Angeles chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.